A Future History of Earth
Dragonstar Enterprise takes place in the late 21st century. On January 1st, 2017, a massive ship, unknown to any Earthly nation came roaring through the atmosphere. It crashed upon the National Mall, and dazed, reptilian beings came out of it, greeted by a very alert secret service. Initial attempts to communicate were met with puzzled, frustrated shouting on both sides, before a taller alien, with thick scales of deep blue and yellow frills and crests, came up to one of the shouting aliens, chanting in their unintelligible rasping language, and smashed a small clay object against the smaller's chest. This was humanity's first contact with an alien species. There was some initial confusion as they called themselves both "kobolds" and "The Dragon Empire," but it was quickly clarified that their species was kobold and they served the Dragon Empire. To be fair, the kobolds were confused by the humans that called themselves Americans. The kobold ship was in need of serious repairs. Some could be magically mended, but some required mundane repair. Either way, raw materials were necessary, and the ship had been forced to land on the nearest planet. It was a bit difficult to arrange an agreement with the kobolds, at first, as the president-elect had gone missing around the time of the crash, and the sitting president was so close to ending his term that congress was dropping boxes off at the White House. President-Elect Trump's plane's wreckage was found when the kobold ship was moved. In their uncontrollable crash landing, the American president-elect's plane had been caught beneath it, killing everyone on board. The kobolds were actually quite understanding of the brief civil unrest this news caused. It seems that vicious political factionalism is quite common in the Dragon Empire. As the Electoral College's votes had not yet been recognized by congress, a hasty meeting to recast votes was called, and the new president-elect, Hillary Clinton, was quickly recognized as the new president, to the outrage of not-quite half the country. The new president-elect and the sitting president worked together to create an agreement with the Dragon Empire, whereby they would receive aid in repairing their ship, and America would receive a great amount of technological and magical knowledge. Five years after the crash, and a year into President Clinton's second term, the kobolds were able to leave, but they had left quite a mark on Earth. The political landscape was very different, and America had become even more solidly the leader of the world. Kobold magic had helped solve resource struggles, and the kobold method of problem solving had removed several militant organizations that previously demanded a lot of attention from the militaries of the developed world (Scry and Die works wonderfully against Somali warlords and Isis cells. It's rumored a few kobolds stayed behind and joined the CIA, MI6, and other intelligence agencies). As a result, by the end of Clinton's second term, globalization was closer than ever. Teleportation and transmutation magic had made scarcity a thing of the past, allowing resources to be moved in an instant and recycling to be done nearly as quickly, but with no additional energy or monetary input. Jobs steadily disappeared as transportation was more and more handled by magic, but many found new work they preferred, or found they no longer needed to work as the kobold sorcerer had a tendency to walk up to humans pissed about losing their job and shoving a head-sized golden egg into their hands before walking off. By 2030, Earth had become a nation-planet, led by a council of continental leaders elected by their respective continent. It was finally ripe for a return from the Dragon Empire. This time, the roar in the atmosphere was not that of a damaged ship, but a ship in quite good shape, fully armed, and, once it had dropped through the Ozone Layer, flanked by enormous wyrms. This time, the kobolds were polite, but subservient, as they preceded an immense black wyrm that prowled out of the ship, bedecked in technomagic implants, robes of fine alien material, and lustrous blue-grey tantalum jewelry. He declared that Earth was a part of the Dragon Empire, and that the Continental Council would now report directly to him, Antharquitu. Several Continental Council members balked at this, but others with cooler heads convinced them to ask questions before resisting a clearly technologically-superior empire (the science and magic shared by the kobolds who crashed in 2017 had enabled interplanetary exploration, but interstellar travel yet eluded humanity). Antharquitu was largely uninterested in the politics of Earth, and allowed humanity to govern itself while it was on Earth, and told the council that their conquest by the Dragon Empire largely meant that they were subject to command by the Council of Wyrms, which was very far away and even more uninterested, and that they would be part of the Empire's resources, namely military. Earth did not resist it's conquest, since its aid of a fairly important imperial ship years before had bought it an enviable degree of autonomy in the Empire, and being part of the Empire promised to bring even greater technological and magical advances to Earth. It wasn't long before the other shoe dropped, and the monstrous nature of black dragons was made known to Earth, but by then, there was little that could be done but turn the sacrifice of humans to Antharquitu into a method of execution. Fortunately, Antharquitu preferred seasoned murderers who could provide him with some sport over the traditional virgin maiden. As things are now, in the year 2070, large pockets of Earth are vocally opposed to "Lizards" and membership in the Dragon Empire, but are fully aware that one of the few changes to Earth law enforced by the Dragon Empire is that assault of a dragon or kobold by a member of another species is punishable by death, and Imperial Justiciars are rather unconcerned with collateral damage in pursuit of someone who has assaulted, let alone killed, a kobold or dragon. Most people of Earth get on with their lives, glad for their basic income, their home Fabricators, and the luxury of working only if they want to.